This is a tough one. Big one in our house. My DH is a film-maker, media junkie, seriously he consumes movies, documentary, satire and (some) tv like it is going out of style - although he is pretty discerning, he still does watch a lot. So the chances of Stan having a low exposure to TV as he is growing up is basically nil. It is just a big part of who his dad is - he loves film making, camera work, colour, editing, film scores, composition - all that stuff.
I think having rules about when it goes on, or how long it goes on for etc is kind of arbitrary. If Stan says (which he does, constantly) 'I wanna watch a movie,' I don't say 'no' but instead say, 'do you want to play with me? Shall we play X? Shall we go ride your bike in the park? Do you want to help me make cookies? Let's paint! (etc)' to try to give him some attractive alternative. Something better. Usually, if it's a promise to do something WITH ME (ie not, 'go draw with your crayons by yourself'), he would pick that instead.
If he doesn't I will often let him watch a ten minute show, that will happen once or twice a day. He will often watch 20 mins in the morning, after which we either have to get going, or if it is a weekend I will say it's time to turn the TV off now we have to move our bodies. He will also often watch 20 mins in the evening, right before putting on pyjamas, when both of us are exhausted. CBeebies channel is for very little ones and has no advertising, and anything else is prescreened and ads removed, actually I think I care more about him being exposed to advertising than anything haha

He loves Pingu which is this very gentle animation which just makes him laugh so hard, he falls down on the floor which is something very cute to see.
I figure it balances out. I try really hard to give him like an hour a day of totally dedicated play time with me (ie me playing with him on his terms, whatever he wants to play, however stultifyingly boring it is), and we spend at least an hour a day in the park kicking balls, running, jumping, climbing, or at the pool. As long as it's part of a more balanced day, I don't mind too much.
I dunno. Not much help, sorry. But that's where we're coming from.